


The Walking Dead: A New Ally

by DemonRomantic



Category: The Walking Dead
Genre: F/M, Major spoilers!, Multi, Original Character(s), Side Story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2018-09-19 11:04:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9437303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DemonRomantic/pseuds/DemonRomantic
Summary: A new character is introduced to Rick's group who reminds Daryl of Beth. Although this new friend cannot speak at first, she may prove to be a clever asset to the group.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Smd00](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smd00/gifts).



> This was an idea I had for Season 5 and on, and does contain spoilers. Hope that you guys like it.

The Walking Dead: A New Ally  
By DemonRomantic

Running was bad, unless it was necessary. I’d learned that much. These things came towards noise, so the less you made the better. That was a cruel irony in my case, after what those bastards in that place had done to me. For the longest time I had wondered why. Why would people be so cruel to each other when the world was already a mess? That question was almost idiotic to me now. People weren’t all good because they wanted to be; some just played along until it suited them… When it came right down to it, everyone else just did what they had to in order to survive.  
I didn’t know where the hell I was now. Somewhere close to South Carolina? North? It didn’t matter anyway. All that mattered was getting somewhere without those things. Maybe up North in the Artic they wouldn’t be as bad? I knew that they slowed down some in the winter. I had to make it up there and find a warm place before…  
I heard twigs snapping, and my senses immediately heightened and went into defense mode. Looking around, I found a tree with limbs close enough that I could reach and scrambled up before one of those things came walking underneath me. I watched it walk passed, keeping as still as possible and breathing heavily. All I could think about was how evil people were, how stupid they let their ambitions get until they destroyed their own humanity. Until they literally turned themselves into monsters.   
Ugly wasn’t alone, though. They rarely were. Two more came skulking under, but these ones were moving slower. It was constant anxiety caused by these ‘Changed’, as we’d called them back at the camp. If it wasn’t worrying about when they’d show up, it was waiting them out, or running and fighting them off. I hadn’t ever gotten close enough to one of these things to finish them off like the fighters had. I was too much of a coward. At least that’s what they’d said. Who would want to get close to something that’d rip you to pieces while you were still alive?  
The other Changed moved away far enough that I felt I could move now, but I wasn’t climbing down until I was sure that was all of them. I’d seen too many people go down thanks to these things, and I wasn’t about to get turned into one of those monsters. I looked at my wristwatch, something I had held onto with my life and constantly made sure was working. After ten minutes had passed without spotting another one of those things I moved on.   
The woods were safer by far than the streets. There were trees here, and cover, and less Changed. There were also less people to worry about. Since I’d left the camp, I’d come across only Changed, something that was both a blessing and a curse. It meant that I would be safer, but it did get maddening having no one to listen to but my own thoughts. Getting bored was rare, but when it did happen, I’d experiment with traps. I was forever grateful that my dad had taught me enough about hunting and camping that I could manage for myself out here.   
I wished that I had been able to swipe more things before escaping, though. I had my sleeping bag and backpack with a water bottle, a swiss army knife, some rope, a notepad and pen, and a few granola bars and cans of tuna. I never risked starting a fire at night, afraid that the light would attract those things, so trying to sleep was freezing, but at least I never got bothered as long as I employed my trick of burying myself so that only my face poked out of the ground. The Changed would walk right over me sometimes without even noticing I was there. I constantly prayed that none of them would ever walk over my face.   
That’s how it was. Until one morning when I accidently stumbled into an abandoned campsite where some unlucky bastard had gotten turned and was tied up in a hammock. Instead of walking on, as I should have, I tried to salvage anything that was edible or otherwise useful. I didn’t realize that there was another one trapped inside of a tent, and unzipped the damn thing. Now it was necessary to run. I bolted into the trees, trying to get as far away as possible, but it was no use. The noise attracted more of those things.  
I scrambled up a tree, knowing that they couldn’t climb, and stared in horror at the herd of them that swarmed around my sanctuary. They snarled and gnashed their teeth, clawing up the trunk. There was no way out, I was trapped. I knew that as long as they were preoccupied with me, they wouldn’t do anything else but try to get at me. I was a goner.   
Three agonizing hours passed without a single one of them going away. I tried breaking off branches and chucking them away, but they weren’t dumb enough to go after them apparently. The only dumb one here was me. I laughed morbidly. If only I had a weapon…  
My survival instincts kicked into overdrive and I hunted the uppermost branches for a long sturdy shaft. Once I snapped off my makeshift spear, I pulled out the pocket knife from my backpack and began wildling down the stick into a point. Once my spear was ready, I climbed down to the lowest limbs, just out of reach of the pack of Changed. I wasn’t sure if I could stab hard enough, but I knew to aim for the head.   
Hope was restored after I managed to get most of them. I was so busy poking at them, that when an arrow came flying out of nowhere, pinning one of them to the tree, I nearly dropped my spear. Looking out a few yards, I saw a group of men coming towards me. One had a crossbow, while the others brandished machetes and hunting knives. It took mere minutes for them to finish off the rest of the Changed, but I stayed up in my perch, waiting for them to come to me.   
The one with the crossbow eyeballed me with a confusing expression, that was a mix of hesitation because of the spear I had angled at him and… sad familiarity? He looked between me and the arrow shish-kabobbing the Changed to my tree. I pulled my spear up so that he knew I wasn’t planning on stabbing him with it. Not yet anyway.  
The rest of his group came over and stared up at me. One of them spoke, and I automatically pegged him as the leader from his demeanor. He held up his hands, showing one unarmed and the other with a knife that he quickly put back in its sheath.   
“Why don’t you come down now and we can talk. The Walkers are all gone.”  
I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life up in the tree, so I came down, but held onto my spear with both hands, keeping my eye on each and every one of them. I knew that people were a far bigger threat than the Changed.   
“What’s your name?” The leader asked, lowering his hands.  
I shifted my spear to one hand and unshouldered my backpack while they all tensed up at my movements. I unzipped the bag, slowly, and withdrew the pen and notepad inside, making sure to show all of them what I had so that they wouldn’t immediately attack me. I used the pen to write down my message on the paper and ripped off the sheet to hand to the leader. The guy with the crossbow and another man with a baseball cap who looked Asian, stood closest to him and read over his shoulder.   
‘My name is Kat.’  
“My name’s Rick. Can you talk, Kat?” The leader asked.  
I shook my head. Writing down another message.  
‘I was hurt by the people I was staying with.’  
He shared a look with the men flanking him and then turned back to me after they each gave him a nod.   
“How many Walkers have you killed?”  
I scribbled down on the paper.   
‘If you mean the zombies, 15?’  
“Alright, and how many people have you killed?”  
‘1.’   
“Why?”  
I stared at him with a serious look, before closing the space between us and scribbling down my answer. I held up the notepad so that it was right in front of his face and frowned with my jaw set tight.   
He nodded with a frown of his own, taking the notepad from me and removing the page I had written on, crumpling it into a ball before placing it in his jeans’ pocket.   
“I promise you that no one here is going to hurt you, Kat. We have a place, it’s not far from here, where you can be safe. If you want to come with us?”   
I turned to look at each of them in turn. They all had the look of every person I’d met since this whole mess had started, but I noticed that they all looked clean shaven and were wearing fresh clothes. These people were fighters, but they had a place to go, and I knew that If they had intended to kill me, they could have just let the Changed take care of that for them. Looking Rick up and down, I noticed a wedding band on his left hand, and allowed my eyes to linger there. I nodded.   
“Alright. We’re out scouting now, so I’ll have Daryl and Aaron take you back. Do you have any other weapons besides that?” He asked, pointing to the spear.   
I pulled out my swiss army knife and showed him the rest of the contents of my bag.   
“Okay, well that should be enough for now.”  
Rick began walking, leaving me with the two I were assuming were Aaron and Daryl. The one without the crossbow extended a hand towards me while the other continued to give me his weird look.   
“I’m Aaron and this is Daryl. Kat, was it? Nice to meet you.”  
I nodded my head in greeting, giving him a tight-lipped smile.   
They both began walking, Aaron ahead of me and Daryl behind with his crossbow still in his hands but lowered. Neither of them spoke for a long time, probably out of curtesy to me, but I found the silence in the presence of those who could speak to be annoying. So, I began writing and handed my note to Aaron.  
‘Where are we going?’  
“To Alexandria. There’s a community with a wall. It’s got food, shelter, everything we need… Where are you coming from?”  
‘Tennessee. I was traveling to Atlanta when my group decided to head to Washington D.C. instead. They said that it would be better to be nearer to the government when they discovered a cure.’  
“Passing notes back and forth. That’s real cute. This ain’t elementary school…” Daryl said.   
I wrote at the bottom of the note before handing it to Aaron.   
‘(Read out loud so that Daryl doesn’t feel left out. ;) )’  
Aaron smiled back at me and read out loud, omitting my last note.   
“So what happened to the rest of your group? Did you get separated.”  
I slowed my walking to a stop, shaking my head when he turned.   
‘We joined with a camp in Dalton and it turned out that they were only interested in making their ranks stronger. Soon things fell out of control and people started fighting for power. After a while, everyone became savages. They were all turning on each other. So, I left.’  
“No one came with you, huh? Would’ve been a good idea to have back-up stead of climbing up trees like a squirrel.” Daryl said.   
I turned to throw him a dirty look over my shoulder. He wasn’t looking at me though, he was preoccupied with looking off into the trees, but I could tell he wasn’t watching for Changed. He was the biker-type and had an intimidating anger vibrating off of him, but I could tell by the way he’d been looking at me earlier and the way he wouldn’t look at me now, that there was something else I was missing.  
He walked passed me, muttering as he went. “Bad idea if you ask me. Taking in a mute who can’t stay out of trouble.”   
I stuck my tongue out at him and Aaron snickered. I sucked it back in as Daryl turned around and threw a suspicious look between us. I just smiled smugly at him as we continued walking, no longer in a single file, but side by side. I looked at him until he started throwing glances down at me.   
“Why don’t you take a picture, it’ll last longer.”  
I wrote down in my notepad and held it up in front of him.   
‘Who do I remind you of? A sister? Old girlfriend?’  
“I don’t got a sister.” He said.   
I raised my eyebrows promptingly.   
“You’re a nosey one, for somebody that can’t talk. What if I decide not to read those little notes of yours?”   
I half-heartedly slugged him in the arm and he looked at me like I was crazy, but there was just the faintest hint of a smirk on his face.   
I decided that I liked him. He wasn’t afraid to say what was on his mind. That was something we had in common.   
After about an hour of walking, we made it to the tree line and came upon a clearing that lead to what looked like a closed community with iron walls. There were several cars scattered here and there outside the gates. A wave of nausea rolled over me and I used a nearby tree to brace myself as I vomited. Once it passed, the both of them looked at me with concerned disgust. I wiped away the drool on my lips before writing another message and handing it to Daryl who was closer to me. He read it to himself and huffed out a single laugh of disbelief before handing it over to Aaron.  
Aaron looked up at me with raised eyebrows. “You’re pregnant?”  
I nodded.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2  
The inside of Alexandria wasn’t like the camp I had escaped from. The people here looked like they were completely oblivious to the horrors waiting just outside their gates. I was surprised to see children running around playing, and I unconsciously placed my free hand over my stomach. I had only recently discovered about the baby, and I was barely a month and a half pregnant. My goal had been to go North and find shelter before it was born, with or without the help of someone. This place looked safe on the surface, but I knew better than to give my trust away so soon. That was how I’d ended up in my current predicament. I was grateful that Rick hadn’t shared my note with the others; it was a memory I wanted to obliterate. I wanted to keep some of my humanity, and I had always dreamed of having a child someday, so what did it matter where my baby had come from? The staring and whispers are what I couldn’t handle, I’d be getting enough of that thanks to the other things they had done to me, I didn’t need to add rape victim to that list.   
Aaron pointed to a few of the houses, explaining that the people who had created this place lived there, or how they had their own food storage, and even a doctor. I noticed that Daryl had a rabbit hanging off his belt, and I wondered just how much food they had stocked up here.   
“And over there we have a library, I’m sure that there are some sign language books available if you think that that would be helpful. Of course the pen and paper work just as well.”   
I gave him the sign for ‘Thank you’ and bowed my head slightly with a small smile.   
“Oh, uh Daryl, I just remembered that I promised Eric I’d be home by six. Would you mind showing Kat the houses where she can stay?”   
“Not like I have anything else to do.” He said, finally swinging his crossbow up to rest against his back. “Come on, Kat. This way.”   
Daryl started walking as I waved goodbye to Aaron, and I followed close behind. The two of us didn’t have far to go before we came to a stretch of road where several vacant houses sat abandoned, or otherwise never inhabited. A woman with short gray hair sat on one of the porches and stood when we approached, she smiled at the both of us and furrowed her brow at me before turning to Daryl.   
“New recruit?” She had a sweet voice, and I wondered if she had been a part of the community before the outbreak. With a harder look at her though, I could tell that she was wearing a mask, and something about how well it blended scared the shit out of me.   
“This is Kat. She’s mute. Kat, this is Carrol.”  
“Nice to meet you, Kat.” She said smiling genuinely this time, and offering her hand.   
I returned the smile, and wasn’t surprised to find that she had a firm grip. This woman was a wolf disguised as a lamb, and I had no doubt that she was more deadly than the man standing next to me with a scowl and crossbow.   
“If you two are hungry, I’ve got a casserole in the oven, shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes.”

They had electricity then? These people sure were living it up in Zombieville. I followed the both of them into Carrol’s house, gazing at the sparse white walls and the limited furniture around the hall and living room. The majority of furniture was actually mattresses and bed rolls with sleeping bags all tucked away in the corner. Just how many people lived here exactly?   
As we ate, Carrol attempted to have a polite conversation with me. Before the meal, I had pulled out my notepad and pen, and taken a seat so that I was between the two of them and they could both read my notes.   
‘Are you two together?’ I asked.  
Daryl made a coughing laugh and shook his head, while Carrol smiled. “No. Just friends. We came here together with the same group. What about you, are you married, or… have a partner somewhere?”   
I shook my head, scratching out a quick note. ‘I had a boyfriend in my previous group, but he was killed.’  
“I’m sorry to hear that.”  
“You mean read?” Daryl muttered, taking a sip of water from his glass. He really looked out of place there, but then again so did I.

My clothes were the same ones I’d worn the day we left Tennessee, and I had cut my hair to get rid of all the mats that had caked themselves in, so it probably looked like a toddler who’d given themselves a makeover. The only bathing I’d gotten done was with creek water. When I said that my group had been a camp, I meant a camp in the tents and bonfires sense. We hadn’t found a place like this thanks to the Changed that infested all of the buildings we’d come across, and there had been several losses on food runs.   
Daryl nudged me and I knew that he was just teasing when he made mean comments about the fact that I couldn’t talk anymore. I flipped him off anyway when Carrol wasn’t looking, and smiled. These were the first people who seemed to have a good humor to them that I’d met in a long time.   
“Alright, Kat, if you’d like to get cleaned up, I’m sure I can find some fresh clothes for you, or if you’d prefer, I can wash yours while you shower.”  
I smiled and nodded appreciatively at her.   
“Daryl, you might want to wash up, yourself, your looking a little greasy.”  
“I showered this morning.” He said wiping his mouth on a napkin. When he pulled it away it was smeared with food and dirt. 

The water was so nice that I ended up in the shower for almost two hours. The amount of dirt I washed off was astounding. When I climbed out, I saw that my once soiled T-shirt and jeans had been folded neatly on the vanity with an unopened toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste along with some nail-clippers and a hairbrush. After utilizing the gifts from Carrol, I walked back downstairs to find them accompanied by the group that had found me and some additional faces that turned to look at me questioningly.   
Rick had been talking to everyone when I’d entered, and nodded to me as I stood in the doorway.   
“Everyone, this is Kat. Kat, you’re welcome to stay here with us, or if you’d like, there are other houses you can set up in.”  
I shook my shaggy head. The last thing I wanted was to sleep alone in a vacant house. Now I understood why there were so many bed rolls in the living room. A few of the others smiled and inclined their heads towards me, and I waved shyly. I noticed that a handful of them were gaping at me slightly. One of them especially, was a young woman with short brown hair. They went back to what they were doing before I entered, and Daryl came over towards me.  
“Carrol wants me to take you over to the infirmary so you can get a check-up and prenatal vitamins. Make sure everything’s okay, you know?” He said in a voice that was meant so only I could hear it.   
I nodded at him before following him out onto the street. 

“Beth.” He said after we had been walking for a few minutes.  
I looked at him with my head cocked to the side and my brow furrowed.   
“She was in our group. Maggie’s sister, that girl with the brown hair you saw in there. She died not too long ago. That’s who you look like.”   
I could see the way his jaw clenched as if he were trying to hold back tears that he wouldn’t shed. I’d seen that look often in men. Unable to comfort him with my words, I took his hand and squeezed it gently once before letting it go, but he still held on for a split second longer. The unreadable stone expression on his face made me wonder just how far down he had pushed his emotions, and I felt a twinge of acceptance as he released my hand. 

Later, when I thanked Carrol for asking Daryl to take me to the infirmary, she gave me a look of confusion.  
“I didn’t ask him to do that. Why would you need to go to the infirmary?”   
I then realized that I had never mentioned my pregnancy to Carrol, and a small smile played at the corner of my mouth.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3  
“Alright, Kat, now I want you to try singing again. Do you think that you can do it?” Denise asked me, with her fingers pressed against my throat.  
“What… should I… sing?” I rasped out in a barely audible whisper. The effort made my throat sting like someone had taken a hot poker and shoved it down my esophagus. That wasn’t far from the truth. I was getting louder, though, so I couldn’t slack off.  
I had been with the group for almost three months, and now knew everyone’s name in Alexandria. They all had been extremely welcoming after I had proven I was worth my salt by protecting them as much as they did me out on runs. At first, Rick and Daryl didn’t want me to go because of the baby and my idiocy that had been their first impression of me, but after sneaking out and tracking them down, there wasn’t much they could do about it. I refused to be a burden to them…  
When we weren’t going on runs, it was a game of make believe that we were safe, but a nice game never-the-less. After that first meeting with Denise, she had asked me just what had taken my voice away, and had been working with me ever since to get it back, assuring me that someday I would. It was slow progress, but progress all the same.  
“How about something with a low octave?... Try ‘Amazing Grace’.”  
I managed to make a contorted version of the word ‘amazing’ before hacking my lungs out and tasting blood in the back of my throat. Denise held up her hands as if she wanted to do something, but didn’t know what.  
“Um… Okay that’s enough for right now. Just stick to a few words until your voice gets stronger, okay Katrina.”  
“No. I want… to be able to… talk!” I struggled, wincing, before flashing her a smile. “And, I told you… It’s Kat.”  
“Alright, well just be careful. Too much strain and you could end up permanently sounding like a chain-smoker.”  
“They were a good band…. That wouldn’t be so bad. At least I can talk now.”  
She huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, well… How about the other stuff?”  
“You don’t have to keep quiet about that here, besides… everybody will find out… soon.”  
The only people who knew were Denise, Rick, Daryl, Aaron and Carrol; about the baby, and where it had come from. No one had asked any more questions than necessary, which was great, but I had told Denise, for medical purposes, everything that had happened in full detail about the night I ran away.  
In my old camp, my boyfriend, Steven, was one of our runners. He had gone out with a group and the rest of them had come back without him. When I asked, they told me that the Changed had gotten him. I felt so low that I had gone off by myself for most of the day and didn’t come back until after dark. When I got there, I heard some of the other men in our group howling drunk around a bonfire.  
“What the hell are you doing!” I’d shouted.  
One of them had grabbed me, pulling at my clothes. “Relax darling, It’s the end of the world, we should be celebrating. Loosen up a little.”  
“Get off of me!”  
“Oh, hey now, girl. Don’t be unkind to your saviors. If it weren’t for us, you and that jag-off boy toy of yours’d both be Changed chow. You’d both be tryin’ ta eat our brains!”  
“I got something you can eat right here…” Another one of them said, unzipping his pants.  
I fought tooth and nail until one of them got too close to my teeth.  
“Damn, bitch!” He shouted, grabbing a stick and shoving it into the flames of the fire. “Fine… You won’t eat that, then that pretty little mouth of yours don’t got much use, do it?”  
I spat at his face before the burning embers were forced down my throat and I blacked-out, but not before I heard his sickening voice in my ear.  
“Now you just chew on that while the boys and I have a little fun.”  
The sound of screaming brought me out of my unconsciousness. I peeled open my eyes to see Changed attacking the campsite. I was still by the fire, but it had been situated in the middle of the campground so that the tents were mostly blocking it from view, and the blockade of newly awoken campers was all that stood between me and the Changed. I dashed through all of the nearby tents that hadn’t been struck yet, and grabbed whatever looked good before booking it to the tree-line opposite the one that the Changed had entered from. It wasn’t until the morning after that I felt the full extent of the damage that had been inflicted upon me.  
And then I’d just kept walking. Some days were worse than others, and some were better, but I couldn’t let myself be killed by my own thoughts and what the past had done to me when I had made it this far. I was still alive, and I would fight until I couldn’t. Finding out about the baby had only made me want to push harder. I didn’t know for certain whose it was, but it didn’t matter, it was mine, too. The world may have turned to shit, but I was going to help make the best life I could for the ones who would live on after me.  
“We’re getting pretty low on meds here. Maybe I can have Daryl and Rosita make a run…” Denise said, snapping me out of my daze.  
“I can go with.”  
“Kat, you really should be taking it easy. I’m worried that too much stress could be harmful to you and the baby. We don’t exactly have the best doctors here if anything goes wrong.”  
“Don’t be so modest. You saved Carl’s life. We’re all in good hands with you, Denise.”  
She gave me a weak smile before I left with my refill of prenatal vitamins safely tucked away in my jacket. I was surprised to see Daryl waiting for me outside.  
“How are the voice lessons going?” He asked chucking away a weed he had been chewing on.  
“Going good. You been waiting for me this whole time?” I asked, raising an eyebrow teasingly.  
“I was walking past, figured you’d be here.”  
We started walking off in no particular direction, scanning the streets as we went.  
“You going out for another run today?”  
“Naw. I get the day off. Course there ain’t much to do around here. Might just go out hunting again. Supplies are running low.”  
“I could come with you, if you’d like the company… I do know how to set-up snares.”  
He glanced down at the miniscule bump developing in my abdomen and briefly brushed my stomach. We were out of sight of anyone, so I didn’t mind.  
“Maybe I’ll just keep an eye on things around here instead.” He said clearing his throat.  
“You don’t have to do that, you know…”  
“Do what?” He said, looking at me.  
“Act like something bad is going to happen. I see the way you look at me… like you can’t get her out of your head... I get it, Daryl, alright I do, but you can’t keep worrying about the bad things that could happen to everyone. It’s not your burden to bare.”  
He was quiet the rest of the way back to my house. I had decided after getting comfortable enough with everyone, that it would be nice to have my own place to set up in. Mostly I just used it for a place to sleep at night. Daryl and I stood outside on the walkway leading to the stoop when he glanced up at the house for a moment and then back down at me.  
“This place is home for everyone, but for me, I don’t need a big house or even walls to keep out the Walkers. I’m grateful for it though, because it’s what everyone else wants. It makes them happy. We’ve all lost a lot, but the people are the worst. It’s like we’re damned. Living in hell, and every time it feels like the pain is finally going away it comes back to burn you. I don’t want any more of that for my family. I can’t watch anyone else die, or I feel like I’m going to lose something inside of me. Something important, you know?”  
It was quiet for a long time before I broke the silence with a deep sigh. “Okay. I’ll stop going on runs. You have to promise me something though, Daryl. No matter what happens, whether more people die, or we have to leave Alexandria behind someday, you’ll always be the same person inside. A piece of you goes with them. Always. Don’t let it take all of you.”  
He didn’t speak or nod, but he looked at me with unyielding eyes that didn’t blink.  
“I’m going to go lie down for a while. If anything interesting happens let me know.”  
I walked into the house shutting the door behind me.

A few hours passed before I went outside again. I was on my way to get some more food from the storehouse, when I heard the gate opening and saw Rosita, Daryl, and Abraham hauling Eugene inside. Eugene was bleeding. I rushed over along with some of the other residents and watched in horror as they carried him off to the infirmary with haunted expressions.  
It wasn’t until later that I found out what had happened, and I tried to console Daryl, while also feeling the pain of Denise’s loss. I couldn’t believe that she had gone with them and been killed! I had just spoken with her that morning. I looked down at my watch, which read five-thirty-two on it and stopped it, sliding it slowly off of my wrist. I stared at its face and frowned, slipping it into my pocket. Daryl was murmuring something to himself from where he sat hunched forward on a windowsill inside my living room. His hands and face were smeared with dirt from digging a grave for Denise, and his eyes were bloodshot. The faint smell of alcohol wafted off of him.  
“I should have killed them… Should have killed them.” He was saying over and over.  
I came to sit down beside him, gently placing a hand on his shoulder. He put his own hand over mine and grimaced, his face contorting with the effort not to break out in tears, but a few sobs came out in gasped breaths.  
“It’s a curse. Should have known all this time. I don’t get to keep anyone close.” His voice rose. “I’m bad luck for anyone I decide to let in!”  
“Daryl, stop. You aren’t bad luck, it just happened. No one could have known-”  
He got to his feet, pulling away from my touch. “Don’t! Don’t pretend that you get it. You don’t know what it’s like to finally get close to someone and have them taken away the same day. More than once! I try, okay? I’ve tried to trust people, but they always end up getting hurt or wind up backstabbing me for it. You should just stay away from me, alright. Don’t let me in, don’t trust me… You just stay away from me, Kat! Or else it’ll happen again, just like it always does!”  
“Daryl! You’re being an asshole!” I yelled, but then took a deep breath and spoke softer, my throat burning. “You…You aren’t a curse. Rick, Carrol, and everyone else here looks up to you for being strong. It’s not easy to be strong when you hurt so bad, but you have each other and you survive! Daryl, you can fight until the day you die, but it’s not about waiting for death. It’s about living and pushing on, even though it gets hard. That’s what it means to survive, and you… I know that you’re going to be the last man standing.”  
He grabbed my face then, and I felt his lips crush against mine in a frustrated kiss that was over just as quickly as it was planted. He stepped back looking at me and breathing heavily. I looked at him through my disheveled bangs, not knowing where to go from there. He sniffed and turned away from me, heading for the front entrance.  
“Daryl, wait!” I called after him.  
He paused before opening the door, but didn’t turn around to look at me. “You’re wrong. I’m not strong. If I’m the last one standing, then it’s because I didn’t protect everyone like I was supposed to. I’m not making any more mistakes. With the world now, it’s kill or be killed, and I’m sick of losing.”  
With that, he walked out the door, shutting it firmly behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I plan on continuing, but first I would really like to see what happens in season 7 and whether or not I can work a relationship in between Kat and Daryl. I really just want to see him find somebody to love that isn't going away for a long time. Daryl needs some big-time cuddles. :'(


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4  
I can’t say for certain when I woke up, because the next few days felt like a surreal dream. It was like people were disappearing all over and although I knew for certain that some of them were not coming back, the others could’ve still been out there somewhere. Daryl had been taken, Glen and Abraham were dead, and somehow our make-believe world of peace had come shattering down. Alexandria had turned into a town of ghosts, grim and bleak, drifting about in the place of my friends and neighbors. A new nightmare in the never-ending damnation we all faced.  
Upon returning home, Rick had called for a meeting to explain the situation with the Saviors.  
“Anyone who doesn’t want to stay here is welcome to leave, and try to find another place.” His eyes were downcast and ashamed as well as furious. “This mess is because of my decisions. I thought that we could beat them, but we’re outnumbered and there’s no telling what these people will do to get what they want. They killed Glen and Abraham, and they’ll kill all of us if we don’t give them half of our supplies, so I need everyone’s help gathering that for them before they get here. Those who want to leave, can go after.”  
I thought long and hard about what it would mean if I stayed. It would mean slavery, and an unclear future. I couldn’t bear to think of a world where we would live under a ruthless dictator. Rubbing my rounded belly, I thought of Daryl stuck in that terrible place, probably being tortured. Head swimming with unclear thoughts, I decided to walk around the town and weigh my options further. No one else was leaving, most of them having grown accustomed to the safety of the walls, and willing to do what they had to in order to stay.  
Packing a few things I would need on the road, I resigned myself to scavenging for the Saviors in the hopes that a plan to take them out would eventually come to fruition. I was alone, as usual, and carried a large hunting knife in one hand, poised to strike at any instant. I kept to the woods just beyond the road, like I had when I’d been on my own, and was examining a map for nearby places that might have resources, when I heard cars approaching.  
Hidden amongst the foliage, I watched them approach Alexandria, and quickly ran back to see the gates opening. Silently, I crept close enough to hear the exchange of words from beneath one of the decrepit vehicles that was permanently parked in front of the entrance. Although I couldn’t hear what was being said, I had no doubt that this was Negan and his Saviors. Patiently, I waited for the coast to be clear, before making a break for the beds of one of their covered trucks and climbing inside. Crates were stacked all around me with everything from guns and ammo to food and medicine. Apparently, they had already visited another group under their thumb.  
My plan was half-cocked and probably would get me killed, but I was prepared to do what I could to help take these assholes down and save Daryl. The ride wasn’t long, and as soon as the truck stopped, I knew I only had a few moments to either fight to the death or else figure out how to sneak back out.  
“Get these supplies unloaded, I have some business to attend to inside.” Someone's voice, I assumed Negan’s, sounded from the other side of the cloth.  
Footsteps shuffled over dirt and gravel, as the flap was removed and I tensed. Crates were pulled out and little by little, they grew closer to my hiding spot. Desperately, I got to my feet and prepared to slice someone with my knife and make a run for it, before a small sliver of light fell across my face and I turned to see a hole in the canvas covering the truck. Peeking through the hole, I saw that there was no one in my field of vision beyond the fabric, and quickly inserted my knife and slit through it.  
Beyond the tear was a clear lot that led to a door that had been left completely ajar. I seized the opportunity while both men who had been unloading the truck climbed inside to reach the back, and hoisted myself out through the opening before making a mad dash for the entrance. Once inside, I took on a casual walk in an attempt to make it look like I belonged there. There were doors along the walls but only one was left open, and I slid inside once I saw that the room was vacant and closed the door to just a crack.  
The men who had been unloading the truck passed by, arguing.  
“I told you that we needed to get that tarp fixed, the supplies are gonna fall out of that hole.”  
“It’s not my fault it got torn, those damn Chompers ripped it up good while we were parked.”  
Their voices faded as they walked away, and I continued to watch as the rest entered the building. A wave of relief washed over me when I saw Daryl being escorted inside. The man escorting him had blonde hair and a burn scar covering one side of his face. The scarred man opened the door closest to the one I hid behind and pushed Daryl inside before walking towards me. Quickly, I hid under the bed and watched the feet of the man as he walked across the floor. Music began playing; an obnoxious song way too loud to be listened to for enjoyment inside the small room. The man exited, leaving the door wide open so that the music filled the hallway.  
Scuttling out from beneath the bed, I surveyed the hall and walked up to the room holding Daryl. Trying for the knob, I wasn’t surprised to find it locked. I wished for a way to let him know that I would get him out. The music was too loud, and I didn’t want to turn it off or shout because someone might hear. Pressing my hand to the door in a promising gesture, I turned and stealthily started down the hallway, keeping my eyes peeled for anyone who might be on guard. There was no one. I had to find out where that man with the scar had gone so that I could sneak the key away from him and in to Daryl.  
I had wandered around the compound for hours in search of him, coming up empty handed. Going back to the vacant room beside Daryl’s, I crawled underneath the bed in the hopes that the scarred man or someone with a key would come back. My plan was to be as inconspicuous with freeing Daryl as possible, even if it meant not letting him know I had come for him. I didn’t realize that I had fallen asleep until the next morning.  
Almost immediately after waking, I heard footsteps out in the hall. A pair of feet walked into the room and the owner closed the door before sitting down on the bed. I silently chastised myself for falling asleep, and waited with bated breath for the person to leave, when whoever it was began crying.  
“God damn it…” A woman’s voice whispered under her breath.  
She shifted on the bed and I heard tissues being torn as she blew her nose. There was more shifting and then a pen fell to the floor and rolled under the bed. Before I could do anything, she got down on her knees and peeked beneath to find her pen, finding me instead and gasping. Scrambling out, I got to my feet, pulled the knife I was still carrying out, and prepared to fight her before she put up her hands in a show of peace.  
“Wait! You’re here for Daryl, aren’t you?”  
I hesitated, but didn’t lower my knife.  
“I can help you.”  
“Why would you help me?”  
She lowered her hands. “Because I want out, too.”  
“How do I know you won’t trick me?”  
“You don’t, but what options do you have? You could kill me, but then Negan finds out and they put the pieces together if they see that Daryl is missing, too. If you spare me, I can get the key to Daryl’s bike for you and help you both out of here.”  
“Who are you?”  
“Sherry. And you?”  
“Kat.”  
“I can show you to where the key is, you just have to follow me.”  
Putting the knife away after a moment of consideration, I followed her down the halls to a room not far from the one we’d left and she popped her head in first to make sure no one was waiting on the other side. Waving me in I shut the door behind us and she scanned a wall mount of various keys. Picking the right one out she handed it to me and then looked through some drawers until she withdrew a matchstick.  
“The door to Daryl’s cell won’t unlock from the inside with a key, you just need this.” She handed me the match and then smiled.  
“Thanks.”  
I pulled the backpack that I had been carrying since leaving Alexandria off my shoulders and then pulled out the notebook and pen I had kept in it since first arriving there. I wrote ‘Go Now’ on the sheet before ripping it out of the book.  
“Got any tape?”  
I walked back to Daryl’s cell with Sherry and she walked back to the vacant room to fetch her own note she had been writing, as I slid the paper under the door. Going back to the room where Sherry was, she allowed me to look over the note she had written. Within it she had claimed responsibility for helping Daryl escape without mention of my name.  
“I’m planning on going back to my old house to leave this for my husband, after that I’m going my own way. If you still don’t trust me, you’re welcome to come with.”  
“I think I better, just in case. Daryl should be able to take care of himself from here.”  
“We should hurry, someone will be coming with his food any minute now.”

Sherry and I made it outside to the vehicles that were left in the lot. I noticed that the larger trucks were all missing.  
“Should we take a car?”  
“Yeah, we won’t get far without one. Let’s go.”  
The ride wasn’t long, and we drove in silence until we reached her house.  
“Thank you for helping us.”  
“You’re welcome.” She eye-balled my stomach, not for the first time. “Is the baby his?”  
A smile flickered across my face as I shook my head. “No.”  
A Walker appeared then and started towards us. Sherry froze, weaponless, as I walked up to it and used my knife to stab its brain.  
“I’ll head back on my own. You shouldn’t be seen with me in case they’re there when I get back.”  
She nodded.  
Parting ways, I found my way back to the road and began walking within the cover of the trees.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5  
Deciding that I shouldn’t show up empty handed, in case the Saviors came back and saw me approaching, I veered off course toward the nearest town. I knew that it had already been searched, but I had to make sure I looked convincing. Besides, my original intentions had been to gather supplies for them. It was well into the afternoon as I came upon the first signs of the abandoned town. Cars scattered the streets, and I checked those first, tapping each of the windows for Walkers, and then climbing in and picking over the seats when I found none. Night approached swiftly, and I had a stash of two simply made first aid kits, a couple of cans of vegetables and soup, and an emergency blanket all bundled away in a tote. I knew it wouldn’t be enough to appease the Saviors, and I was exhausted, so I decided to get some sleep and try again in the morning. Picking out one of the cars I had already scavenged from, I climbed inside and locked the doors, nestling in with the emergency blanket.   
When morning came, I headed out of town and towards Alexandria, stopping at the adjacent towns and finding a few more things. Once I was home, I was regaled with the information that Olivia and Spencer were both dead, and that Rick had gone with Michonne, Aaron, Tara, Carl, and Rosita to find Father Gabriel, whom had apparently stolen the rest of our food from the pantry. No one mentioned Daryl returning, so I kept my mouth shut, hoping that he had gotten out alright without Sherry ratting on us. Rick and the others retuned a few hours later, only to be accompanied soon after by the Saviors. Watching from a distance, I heard them speaking.  
“Rick, hello! And, hello again.” A man I hadn’t seen before approached him with a group of people carrying guns.  
“Thought it be longer.” Rick said, and edge to his voice.  
“Do you think we’re here for a tribute? Do you?”  
“There another reason?”  
“There is. We’re here for Daryl.”   
A jolt of panic went through me, but I remained poker faced.  
“Well, Negan took Daryl.” Rick snidely replied.   
“But then your son showed up, Daryl went missing… Might those two things be connected.”  
I had no idea that Carl had snuck into the compound as well! If he got blamed for Daryl’s disappearance, and they decided to hurt him…  
“They’re not. We didn’t know he was gone ‘til right now.”  
“Then this should be easy.” The man raised his voice, addressing everyone. “Now, everyone find a buddy. Your gonna have to follow us around. If he’s here, we’re really gonna need you all to see him die.”  
I thanked God that Daryl hadn’t turned up yet, but knew that it was only a matter of time before he came back. I wasn’t made to follow the others, probably because the Saviors didn’t recognize me, but watched in hatred as they ransacked everything and broke things without cause. They finally left with one last threat that there would be trouble if Daryl did show up, no matter when it was, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I watched the receding tailgates.   
Rick spotted me after they were long gone, and came to speak with me.   
“You came back? I thought you might want to leave.” He sounded both glad and disappointed.  
“I was scavenging. Those assholes didn’t notice me.” I unzipped my backpack and showed him the few cans of food I’d found. “It’s not much. Have you found Gabriel?”   
“We’re going to go back out looking for him.” He added more quietly. “Daryl’s safe.”  
I couldn’t hide my surprise at his words. “You know where he is?”  
“He’s with friends. Kat, you shouldn’t have gone out on your own. It’s bad enough that Carl was there, they could’ve killed you.” He made a face that looked like he couldn’t take any more deaths right now and I dropped my head in apology. Leave it to Rick to figure it out.  
“I know, I’m sorry.”  
“Do you want to come with us?”  
I shook my head slowly. “I think I should stay and do what I can to help out here for now. If you see him again, please don’t tell him that I went there to save him.”  
Rick nodded with a small smile. “I won’t. You stay safe, alright.”  
“Same to you.”

When Daryl came back home, I ran and threw my arms around him, hugging him tight. He squeezed me back almost too hard, and pressed his forehead to mine with his eyes shut tight as we stood in the entryway of my house.  
“Hi.” He said.  
I smiled, a relieved laugh coming out. “Hi.”  
“I missed you.”  
A shuttering breath came out. “I missed you, too.”  
He pulled away to look at me and cupped my face with his hand. Fingers, laced into my shaggy hair before he leaned in closer to me and placed a careful, almost shy kiss on my lips. I returned the kiss with as much emotion as I could put into it. He was alive, he was safe, and he was here with his family and with me. His hands drifted down to hold me again and the kiss ended.   
“You alright?” He asked.  
“Yeah.”   
The hands around me drifted to my waist and then gently rested against my stomach.   
“The baby is fine, too.” I said.  
Daryl let out a heavy breath, holding back sobs. I put my arms around his neck and pulled myself into his shoulder with one hand on the back of his head.   
“I’m so glad you’re safe.” I whispered.  
He stroked my hair and we stood there for a long time, before moving to the couch. I fell asleep after we sat for a while, and was vaguely aware of a pair of arms lifting me up and carrying me to my bed. Daryl tucked me in and kissed my forehead, turning to go before I caught his hand.   
“You could stay.” I said.  
Letting out a deep sigh, he pulled off his shoes and I scooted over to let him into the bed. We watched each other in silence, too tired to talk, until we both fell asleep.

Within the next few days, we prepared ourselves for war. Everyone had their job to do, and set to work early getting it done. Mine was to take the children and go to Hilltop. Loading a minivan with the kids, I had just buckled Judith into a car seat, when Rick and Daryl came up to me. Rick handed me a map and told me to be careful on the road, before kissing Judith and nodding to me and Daryl before departing. Daryl wrapped his arms around me, and I brought mine up to return the embrace.  
“You take care of yourself, Kat.” He said.   
“I will.” I pulled away, leaving my hands on his shoulders’. “Give them Hell.”   
He smiled, pecking me on the forehead, before walking after Rick.   
I drove to Hilltop without consequence and holed-up in one of the spare trailers with the kids, while the others prepared to travel to Alexandria. The fight was not a long one, and I was relieved that we had won, but we all knew that the war was far from over. After a funeral for those we’d lost, including Sasha, Rick, Maggie, and our new ally King Ezekiel all stood before us and declared that we would continue to fight the Saviors, and that we would not give-up until we had won.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have not updated this story in a whole year!? I am sorry.   
> Hopefully, I will be wrapping it up soon; we'll have to see how next season goes.   
> (To be honest, I am petering out on this one, but I want to finish it.)  
> For those of you still reading, thank you tremendously for your patience.

Chapter 6  
“Time seems to slow down the harder things get.” That’s what my father had always said to me. “Katrina, sometimes life will be hard, and you’ll just want the pain to end because it seems like it never will, but you have to keep going. That’s what makes a person strong. You can survive any hardship as long as you tell yourself to.”  
He pulled off his watch and handed it to me with shaking fingers. I took it with tears in my eyes, and he clutched my hand.   
“When you feel like you have to stop, you can stop. When you need a rest, you take it, but never quit pushing. When you give up, that’s when you lose. Never give up on yourself, or those you love. Our time comes when it comes, it’s not always when we want it, but we don’t get to decide. My time is now, but you… you have to keep going.”  
I cried, but nodded. He closed his eyes and let out a breath before swallowing. I took the knife from my side and waited for him to stop squeezing my hand before I plunged the blade into his skull with a trembling grip. He hadn’t yet turned, but I wouldn’t let him die as one of those things. Pulling the knife back out, I dropped the blood-soaked weapon and put my hands to my face while a gentle hand gripped my shoulder. Steven’s soft words reached me over my sobs.  
“We have to go now, Kat.”

I gasped awake out of one painful memory and awoke in another. My body was numb and my throat was screaming with the burning pain that had not ceased since I’d been assaulted. I laid sprawled on my back while staring up at a gray sky that was already beginning to drop rain from it’s angry clouds. Thunder sounded far off and I knew that the noise would mean the end for me, but I wanted it. I was sick of this world of endless Hell, I wanted the waking nightmare to stop.   
‘Dad, I’m sorry…’ I thought, unable to speak.   
Letting my head sink to one side, I noticed the watch on my wrist, and saw the wild flowers around me that were sprouting out of the ground despite everything. A single daisy grew closest to my hand; I could have reached it, but I left it be. Something about that flower told me to get up, to keep going. If it could go on, then so could I. I would keep living, just like that little daisy.   
‘Not yet… Not yet!’ 

My eyes peeled open and I saw a white ceiling now. I knew that I was truly awake when I turned and saw the man beside me sleeping peacefully with his hand placed protectively over the miniature bump developing in my abdomen. Daryl looked so different when he was asleep. His face smoothed out, and all the hard lines of worry and pain left his features. I smiled at his state of momentary tranquility, putting my own hand over his. I knew that even though I was awake, that this too, was only a fleeting dream.

I couldn’t believe my eyes, but there they were. Two crescents bleeding beside each other in the side of Carl’s abdomen. I felt like screaming, or stabbing something. It wasn’t fair. For this to have happened in the midst of all the other shit surrounding us… it was just plain cruel. He didn’t look scared though. He just smiled bravely and handed Judith to me after all of us had managed to hide away in the sewer tunnels beneath Alexandria.   
“Do you mind taking her for a little while. If I turn… I don’t want her to be too close.”   
I took the baby without question and sat against the cold metal wall with the rest of our people while we waited for the others to return. When they did, Carl explained his injury to them. Everyone was devastated. Daryl looked at me and extended his arms to take Judith. I handed her off without protest as he slumped down opposite from me and watched Carl with pained eyes; gripping Judith like a life-line. I couldn’t stand that look, and had to walk away for a moment. When Rick and Michonne came down the manhole, I thought that my heart would break in two. They traveled down the tunnel to where Carl sat away from the rest of us, and took in the pain on everyone’s faces before coming to him and having the realization hit.   
I stayed back as farewells were exchanged. After the heart wrentching goodbyes to Carl were said, Daryl led us out of the sewer once the bombs had stopped falling outside. Rick and Michonne stayed behind to be with Carl.

I told myself over and over to be strong. I’d been saying it, but now… Now I didn’t feel anything but a hallowness no matter how many times I tried to believe that I could be. Daryl was right. After so much death, a part of me had finally snapped and now there was nothing there to replace it. It was just a big open wound that would never heal.  
“Hey,” Daryl said, after we had been walking for a while and were well away from Alexandria. He no longer carried Judith, but his crossbow at the ready. “We’re going to figure out a way out of this, okay? Hilltop is where we’re heading, so once we get there, then we’ll have everyone together and we can get ready to fight again.”  
“Fight?” I had regained my voice fully now, without a trace of rasping, but now as I spoke my tone was dry. “Daryl… When will the fighting stop?”  
He didn’t stop walking, but his face had turned to stone. “You saying we should give-up? Let the Saviors win?”  
“No. I’m saying that I’m tired of this…” My voice sounded exhausted and devoid of care. “I thought that sooner or later if I kept fighting that I would finally feel like I was winning, but this… This isn’t about winning anymore. People have been lost. Not just Carl, but Sasha and Denise… How many more people have to be lost before we don’t have to worry anymore? I don’t think that I can feel anymore disappointment. I’m just expecting it at this point.”   
“We’re all scared. Hell, who wouldn’t be after the shit that’s gone down.” His voice was soft, but then stern. “You can’t let it get to you now, not when we need everybody to stick together and see this through.”  
“That’s just it… I’m not scared anymore… I’m just done.” I had unconsciously been resting my hand on my stomach as I walked, a habit I had developed as the bump had, and he watched me as I stroked my bulge and walked with my eyes forward. “I’m ready for peace.”  
I could see him nod out of the corner of my eye before walking on ahead of me. “Yeah, we all are.”

I couldn’t sleep despite the security of everyone laying together on the floors of the Hilltop house. It wasn’t just the hard, uncomfortable bedding, however, that was keeping me from dozing off. It didn’t really feel like we had won today, at least not to me. The fight hadn’t lasted more than an hour or two, and there was still an edge to the air as if I could actually feel the dust that still hadn’t settled. The baby wasn’t helping, having taken residence on my bladder. Getting up, I crossed the floor of sleeping bodies and maneuvered my way to the bathroom. Upon opening the door after relieving myself, I saw to my horror a handful of Walkers beginning to feed on those still sleeping.  
“WALKERS!” I shouted. “Wake-up! They’re in the house!”   
The sound of my shouting, along with the moans and gnashing of the undead, alerted some luckier souls out of their sleep. What followed was a mixture of more friends dying, or suddenly rising-up as Walkers, or helping to kill off the friends who had somehow turned. These were our people, and not part of the hordes outside the walls. It wasn’t until after the whole mess that we realized what the Saviors had done.   
Had I been of a different mind at that moment, I would have wanted revenge. In that instance, though, all I could think about was my dead friends lying on the floor where they had been sleeping soundly only moments before, and all I wanted was to be rid of the death. 

There must have been a God after all. One cruel, twisted and sadistic God, but a God never the less. It was the only explanation I could think of when it came down to the last fight. I knew that it was Eugene who had sabotaged the Savior’s bullets, and not a miracle. I knew that the Saviors who survived along with our people came to a truce by their own will, and not a divine one. And I knew that Rick had spared Negan despite how much he hated him, not because of God, but because he still knew that there was hope despite everything else. Someone somewhere must have said ‘enough’ though, because it seemed that the killing, at least amongst ourselves, was done for now. We had a herd to worry about, and that was far more important a concern than who was in charge or wanted revenge…  
At least, I thought so.


End file.
